Event Horizon (film)
| Event Horizon | |
|---|---|
 Theatrical release poster | |
| Directed by | Paul W. S. Anderson |
| Written by | Philip Eisner Uncredited: Andrew Kevin Walker |
| Produced by | Jeremy Bolt Lawrence Gordon Lloyd Levin |
| Starring | Laurence Fishburne Sam Neill Kathleen Quinlan Joely Richardson |
| Cinematography | Adrian Biddle |
| Edited by | Martin Hunter |
| Music by | Michael Kamen |
| Distributed by | Paramount Pictures |
Release dates |  August 15, 1997  August 22, 1997 |
Running time | 96 min |
| Country | USA/UK |
| Language | English |
Event Horizon is a 1997 science fiction horror film that was written by Philip Eisner (with an uncredited rewrite by Andrew Kevin Walker) and directed by Paul W. S. Anderson. Critics did not like it[1], nor did it do well at the box office.
Plot summary
In the year 2047, a rescue crew on board the ship Lewis & Clark investigates the re-appearance of the spaceship Event Horizon, which was supposedly destroyed seven years earlier. Accompanying them is the ship's designer, Dr. William Weir (Sam Neill), who explains the true story behind the "accident". The Event Horizon did not explode as was reported; it is an experimental ship which is designed to create artificial black holes that "folded space time", thus allowing for rapid travel to the farthest reaches of space. During its maiden voyage, the Event Horizon proceeded to engage its gravity drive, the mechanism which folds space-time, and then vanished. When the crew boards the ship, they discover it is abandoned. However, each crew member starts experiencing grim, vivid hallucinations relating to their inner demons and personal guilt. Justin (Jack Noseworthy), the ship's engineer, is exposed to the ship's core and returns babbling and suicidal, attempting to blow himself out of the airlock before regaining control of himself and being rescued (but not before he is exposed to the vacuum of space and is badly wounded).
The ship did indeed succeed in opening a gateway in space-time by using the gravity drive; however, when it made the jump, it passed outside the known universe and into another dimension, one of "pure chaos, pure evil"; this place is presumably Hell. Upon inspection, the ship's log shows the original crew engaging the gravity drive, and moments later committing an orgy of depraved acts. The captain, who has torn out his own eyes, utters a warning in Latin which initially appears to be Liberate me ("Save me"). This warning is later discovered to be Liberate tu-temet ex inferis ("Save yourself from Hell"), evidence that the ship has gone, literally, to Hell.
Captain Miller (Fishburne) sees images of the comrade he was forced to leave behind in a fire. Dr. Weir sees images of his late wife, who committed suicide by cutting her wrists. She urges him to "join us" so he can be reunited with her. Peters (Kathleen Quinlan), the ship's medical technician, sees images of her disabled son, but with disfigured legs. When the vision of her son runs away, Peters chases it and falls down a chasm to her death. When Miller tells Weir that he plans to destroy the ship, the evil presence delves into Weir's mind. Weir takes one of the explosive devices from the corridor and destroys the Lewis and Clark, killing the pilot of the ship, Smith (Sean Pertwee). Weir then ambushes D.J. (Jason Isaacs), the trauma expert of the crew and a longtime friend of Miller, and dissects him. Weir, like the deceased captain before him, rips his eyes out and proudly announces "where we're going, you don't need eyes to see". Enlisting his aid, the ship uses Weir to activate the gravity drive and the countdown begins.
Weir is eventually sucked out into space as he tries to convince Miller and his surviving comrades that it is pointless to resist. Following this, the ship appears to take command of things and reactivates the gravity drive by itself. Miller makes an attempt to set off the explosives which will separate the front of the ship from the gravity drive section at the rear. He rushes to the gateway room only to discover his former comrade who burned to death standing in front of him. Miller manages to overcome his demons and the figure dissipates into that of Weir, who has been brought back by the ship. The gateway room appears to be the source of the evil presence and seems to have the ability to turn itself on without being activated from the bridge. Miller detonates the explosives, cutting the ship in two. Moments later, the gravity drive is activated and the stern of the ship is sucked in, leaving the lifeboat forward section to drift. A few members of the crew in the remaining front part of the ship survive their ordeal, but are haunted right up to the end. When the rescue team arrives to help them, one of the crew (Richardson) sees the face of Weir as one of their rescuers takes off his mask but this is only a dream she has while in cryogenic sleep. The camera pans out of the airlock, the doors closing, leaving the viewer to wonder whether the evil presence aboard the ship is truly gone.
Cast
- Laurence Fishburne – Capt. Miller
- Sam Neill – Dr. William Weir
- Kathleen Quinlan – Peters (Med Tech)
- Joely Richardson – Lt. Starck (Executive Officer)
- Richard T. Jones – Cooper (Rescue Tech)
- Jack Noseworthy – Justin (Engineering)
- Jason Isaacs – D.J. (Trauma)
- Sean Pertwee – Smith (pilot)
- Peter Marinker – Capt. John Kilpack
- Holley Chant – Claire (Weir's wife)
- Barclay Wright – Denny (Peters' son)
- Noah Huntley – Burning man/Edward Corrick
- Robert Jezek – Rescue 1 technician
Production and design
The first draft of Philip Eisner’s screenplay was written in 1992. The film borrows elements from others in the science fiction and horror genres, such as Stanisław Lem’s Solaris, Doom, 2001: A Space Odyssey, Alien, Aliens, The Haunting, Disney's The Black Hole, The Shining, Flatliners and Hellraiser. For instance, the interior of Lewis and Clark was inspired by the starship Nostromo from Alien. The film is thematically similar to The Haunting and The Shining, complete with the added homage of a tidal wave of blood. The concept of a hellish dimension of pure chaos, inhabited by demonic entities which can possess a ship lost in it, is very similar to The Warp of the Warhammer 40,000 universe. The interior design of the Event Horizon is also very similar to the Gothic imagery used in the ships and buildings of the Imperium in Warhammer 40,000.
In keeping with the naturalistic science fiction setting of the film, costumes are based upon present day flight suits complete with shoulder patches and modified United States Coast Guard officer rank insignia. The sailing ship in the center of the Lewis and Clark’s mission patch is a United States Coast Guard Cutter in reference to the ship’s search and rescue role.
The flag depicted on Dr. Weir’s uniform is a variation of the flag of Australia with the Aboriginal flag replacing the Union Flag. Other crewmembers also have modified flags on their uniforms to suggest political change prior to 2047; one shows the flag of the United States with fifty-five stars, while another shows the European Union flag with an extra circle of stars within the original one, suggesting an enlarged Union, although in reality the European flag has a fixed number of 12 stars deliberately lacking political connotations.
After releasing the highly successful Mortal Kombat in 1995 Anderson was offered the movie. The release-date had already been set and Anderson agreed to do the movie, despite that the deadline meant that the post-production period was severely reduced. On the commentary Anderson cited this as the main-cause for the many troubles faced during production and especially when Anderson was to make decisions on the final cut.
On the commentary Anderson mentioned his wish to direct an R rated picture after the PG-13 rated Mortal Kombat and mentioned he turned down the opportunity to direct X-Men in order to make Event Horizon.
Anderson claims that his initial cut of the film, before the visual effects had been completed, ran to about 130 minutes in length. The film was even more graphic in this incarnation, and both test audiences and the studio were unnerved by the gore. Paramount ordered Anderson to cut the film by 30 minutes and delete some of the violence, a decision that he regrets. Some of the lost scenes were offered as special features but were taken from poor-quality video tape as the studio had little interest in keeping unused footage and the original film has been lost.[2]
Soundtrack
The score of the film was written and performed by Orbital and Michael Kamen. The end credit theme was the song “Funky Shit” by The Prodigy. The movie has been extensively sampled by many bands, notably on Zao's 1999 album, Liberate Te Ex Inferis. Finnish black metal band Flauros has also used that dialog on their song "Monuments of Weakness." Several samples also appear in the song “The Technogoat” and other songs from The Codex Necro album by Anaal Nathrakh as well as on The Ichneumon Method album by The Axis of Perdition, the song “Fun with Knives” (from the album of the same name) and “The Dark Inside Me” by Velvet Acid Christ and on the song “Age of Suffering” by Norwegian death metal band Bloodthorn from the album Under the Reign of Terror. Popular trance producer John Graham under the alias Space Manoeuvres created the track “Stage One” which took samples from the theatrical trailer of the film. Industrial band Front Line Assembly also made liberal use of such samples on its Implode album, most notably on the track "Synthetic Forms," which samples Laurence Fishburne's character say "This place is a tomb.", over and over again.
In Media
The XBOX Live video game "Conker: Live and Reloaded" features a Multiplayer level named "T.M.S. Spamono" which was modeled after the Event Horizon's interior. The level consists of the long hallway from the ship with a Gravity Drive engine on each end, which is the base for each team. The ship appears to be traveling through open space.
